A White House spokesman acknowledged today that while preparing to attend Harvard Law School Barack Obama had lived with his uncle Onyango Obama, who has been in the country illegally since the 1970s. In November 2011, the White House Press Office had told reporters that there was no record of Obama meeting his uncle. So the Boston Globe reported that Uncle Onyango had never met his famous nephew. But Uncle Onyango testified this week in his deportation hearing that his nephew had, in fact, lived with him. The White House never attempted to correct the record until now, claiming that in 2011 the press office hadn’t actually asked the president himself whether he’d lived with Uncle Onyango.
Before “misspeaking” (to use the New York Times stylebook) about the president’s relationships, it might be a lot easier if the White House Press Office simply confirmed them with his composite girlfriends.